Labour is being urged to apologise after raising cash by auctioning a copy of Lord Hutton's report into the death of weapons scientist Dr David Kelly.

According to a Commons motion tabled by Tory MP Stewart Jackson, the event took place at the Arts Club in Mayfair last week and raised £400 for party coffers.

It was "in appalling bad taste" and had distressed the Kelly family, he said.

He added that it was wrong to make money from the report, which was signed by Cherie Blair.

Dr Kelly was found dead in July 2003 after being named as the possible source of a story on BBC Radio 4's Today programme claiming the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

'Crassly insensitive'

Lord Hutton concluded in his report published in January 2004 that the 59-year-old Ministry of Defence weapons expert had killed himself by cutting his left wrist after taking co-proxamol painkillers.

There was no evidence that any third party had been involved, he said.

The Commons motion condemns the auctioning of the report as "in appalling bad taste, arrogant and crassly insensitive in seeking to make money, albeit indirectly, through hawking, as a novelty item, an official Government report into the death of a public servant".

It "regrets the distress caused to the family and friends of the late Dr Kelly; and calls on the Labour Party to apologise for such tasteless and offensive conduct and to donate the money raised to an appropriate charity".